The present invention relates to a doll with an eyeblink mechanism, and more particularly to such a doll with such an eyeblink mechanism including a safety mechanism to preclude overwinding.
A "talking" doll which is capable of emitting sounds (such as speech) is commonly provided with a drive mechanism which moves the doll mouth (and in particular the lips thereof) so that the doll appears to be talking. However, this illusion would be lost if the mouth continued to move even when the doll was silent. Accordingly, the drive mechanism for moving the mouth is preferably actuated by or with the mechanism for generating speech and thus operates intermittently, only while the doll is talking. Additionally, the intermittent motion produced by the drive mechanism is typically relatively slow since the movement of the doll mouth is intended to mimic the mouth of a person speaking.
It is also known to provide a doll which has eyes that appear to blink because periodically the eyelids rapidly lower (to close the eyes) and rise (to open the eyes), thereby simulating an eyeblink. However, it is difficult to realistically simulate an eyeblink. Real eyes normally do not blink at regular, well-established time intervals, and thus doll eyes which blinked only at regular intervals would not appear realistic. Further, an eyeblink is a relatively rapid motion, relative to the usual movement of the lips during human speech. Accordingly, if the eyeblink mechanism of a "talking" doll is to be run off the same drive mechanism which moves the mouth of the talking doll, the eyeblink will appear slower than would be realistic. Finally, a real eyeblink does not stop in the middle, but sweeps back and forth between a fully eye-opened position and a fully eye-closed position, the complete eyeblink cycle being open-close-open. If the eyeblink mechanism is run off the mouth-drive mechanism of a talking doll, if the speech of the doll happens to terminate in the middle of a blink, then the eyelid will either stop in an interim position (with the eye neither fully opened nor fully closed) or perform only a partial blink (i.e., not fully closing the eye), thus providing an unrealistic appearance.
Additionally, the known eyeblink mechanisms frequently become broken as a result of a user either intentionally or accidentally holding an eyelid of the doll in such a manner that the eye is prevented from blinking when the eyeblink mechanism is trying to blink the eye, with resultant damage to the eyeblink mechanism.
It is also well known to provide a doll with a mechanical neck switch such that a play feature may be "kiss"-initiated--in other words, the backward tilting of the head relative to the torso (as would naturally occur when a child kisses the doll on the lips) causes the neck to pivot rearwardly on a pivot pin and thereby close a switch which initiates the play feature. The commonly used neck pivot pin limits the amount of head rotation possible, limiting articulation in any axis. Additionally, the neck pivot pin is typically not very sturdy or resistant to wear and thus may break, with the result that the play feature either cannot be initiated or cannot be turned off once begun.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a doll with an eyeblink mechanism which is realistic.
Another object is to provide such a doll which includes safety means for preventing or minimizing damage to the eyeblink mechanism when the eyeblink is physically restrained by the user.
A further object is to provide a talking doll with an eyeblink mechanism which operates off the same drive as that which moves the mouth of the doll, but blinks the eye in a realistic manner at irregular intervals and with full blinks.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a a doll having an improved kiss-initiated neck switch.
It is a further object to provide a doll with such a neck switch which enables limited head rotation, limited articulation of the head in any axis, and limited telescopic action of the head relative to the body.
It is a further object to provide a doll with such a neck switch which is characterized by a high level of strength to resist breakage.